The present invention relates generally to flame arresters, and more particularly to such a flame arrester which includes a continuous, helical flame arresting member.
Various flame arresters have been known in the art. Flame arresters are desirable in areas where combustible gas and air are mixed in order to prevent flame from progressing and causing subsequent damage and danger to equipment and people. A flame arrester usually includes a structure having a plurality of small channels through which the gas flows, the channels usually being formed of metal and normally at a temperature well below the ignition temperature of the gas. As flame moves through the interstices of the arrester, it will be cooled to a temperature below the combustion point and the gas flame will be extinguished.
Most of the known flame arresters are formed of many individually stacked plates. In flame arresters of this type, as well as other known arresters such as those formed of many pie-like sections, the flame arresting elements must be formed out of many separate sections or components. Often this is done by hand, which is time consuming, tedious and labor intensive, thereby costing the manufacturer a great deal of money. If such a process is automated, the machining must be dedicated to exact dimensions of a particular flame arrester, and a whole set of different machining must be utilized in order to vary the size or shape of a particular flame arrester.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,287,094 issued to Brownell, the arrester element 30 is formed of one piece having sections 32 folded into spaced parallel relationship. The folding process constitutes an additional manufacturing step which is also costly and time consuming. Flame arresters of this type further may be undesirable due to the fact that, in order to obtain optimal flow characteristics with larger volumes of combustible gases while still retaining effective flame quenching, due to the amount of surface area and mass necessary, the resultant flame arrester would be too large and cumbersome for practical use.
Thus, it is an object of the present invention to provide a flame arrester having a one piece, continuous, helical flame arresting member which is easily and advantageously manufactured without any costly, labor intensive time expenditures. Further, it is an object of the present invention to provide a flame arrester which will present an optimal mass and surface area to a flame front with a more economical use of available space. Still further, it is an object to provide a process to make such a flame arrester which utilizes essentially the same manufacturing equipment with slight modification in order to make various sizes of flame arresters, thereby advantageously making more efficient use of the manufacturing facilities. Yet still further, it is an object of the present invention to provide a process to make such a flame arrester which will produce a flame arresting member with little or no waste of raw material.